Riding Dirty on I-95 Read Online Free PDF Page A

wasn'tnothing she could do about her skanky momma, but at least Ms. Pat was going to help her find a car. But even Ms. Pat's cousin's ugly car wouldn't be free. She'd have to come up with some money—not just for the car but also for the tag and taxes and insurance and all the rest of the bullshit.
    As Mercy wondered how she was going to come up with the money, Chocolate Smooth entered the lobby.
    “Hey,” he said to Mercy. “Let me ask you something.”
    Oh, God, now what?
Mercy thought.
    “Look, do y'all rent rooms by the hour?” he inquired.
    “Nope, we don't.”
    “Oh, I was asking because that's how they do up top where I'm from.”
    “Nope, we don't do that,” Mercy said.
    “Look, I need you to stop playing and look out for me for real, and I don't mean no Triple A discount. I need you to let me get a room for about two hours. I ain't really trying to pay the whole sixty-nine dollars for only two hours. How 'bout I give you thirty dollars?”
    She thought for a minute about the money she needed for her car and hesitantly agreed. “Just two hours, right?”
    “Yup, just two hours,” Chocolate Smooth assured her.
    “Are you going to mess up the room?”
    “Naw.” He shook his head.
    “You gonna make up the bed right afterwards?”
    He smiled and replied, “I got you.”
    “Don't leave no trash, no nothing in that room,” Mercy said in an authoritative tone.
    “Look, I got you, ma.”
    Mercy paused. “Aight. Don't fuck this up, okay?”
    “I got you, I'm telling you. Why I wanna fuck up a good thang? Me and you can help each other out.” He smiled as Mercy lookedover the list of vacant rooms. She handed him the key as he handed her the money.
    “Two hours,” Mercy reiterated.
    Chocolate Smooth winked.
    Mercy looked at the thirty dollars in her hand, smiled, and then tucked it into her bra.
Chocolate Smooth was right
, she thought to herself.
Everybody's got a hustle. Why should I be any exception?
    A monster had been unleashed. For that entire week not only did Mercy rent vacant rooms by the hour to Chocolate Smooth and others, but she took an even bigger risk and rented out vacant rooms for the entire night and pocketed the money. She made sure that the rooms were stocked with extra towels and other amenities. Since the hotel didn't have room service, she didn't worry about that. She had her hustle on lock.
    On Friday she caught a cab to work so she wouldn't be late. She would have hated to get fired on the day she was going to take ownership of her new wheels. That night she purchased a 1982 yellow Chevy Chevette from Ms. Pat's cousin. She had to pay a crooked used-car salesman a hundred dollars to write her some thirty-day tags. Although the car was ugly as death walking, she drove it and it got her from Point A to Point B without her ever having to worry about being late again.
    Mercy had gotten what she wanted, but just like any hustle, once that easy money came along, the shit was addictive. By the end of the following week she had money from the hourly rental of the rooms from Chocolate Smooth, as well as money she had pocketed for vacant rooms she had continued to risk renting out to others.
    Now everybody in Richmond knew that if someone wanted to find a place where there were hustlers, the Ambassador was the hotel where they were all staying and dealing. That was the place the dealers made many sales and got plenty of pussy. Mercy wasable to establish a relationship with many of the hustlers. For those who did legitimately check in, she'd check them in under an alias and required no ID. They would always slide her something under the table for that. So if the police or a dealer's main squeeze was looking for him, they wouldn't get the information from the front desk. Also, if a hustler only needed the room for a few hours to cook up or bag up, if the price was right, Mercy hooked them up as well.
    Over the next few months Mercy's funds began to grow. The day before her eighteenth